New house, new me.

I'm ashamed to admit it....but before we moved, I cannot remember the last time I actually made a dinner for my family.  I threw together spaghetti every once in awhile, but I hadn't done actual meals for Marty and Avery in a very, very long time.  And I'm not really sure why.  Sure, a lot of our stuff was packed because we were moving.  Sure, I was exhausted and overwhelmed.  Sure, after getting off work, going to whatever babysitter's house Avery was located that day and then driving the Bluegrass Parkway to get home, I had about an hour before Avery's bedtime to get things accomplished--and taking that time to cook a meal didn't seem appealing in the least.

Those are all things of the past.  We're moved.  Our house is a wreck, but we're moved.  I'm actually sleeping at night--hallelujah!  I am home within 30 minutes of getting off work, as opposed to the hour to hour and a half after I got off when we lived in Bardstown.  It's time for me to bring back my "Proverbs 31 Project" and get back in touch with my inner culinary diva.

I love cooking.  I'm not fantastic at it, by any means.  I can't look at ingredients and throw them together to make a tasty meal...as much as I would LOVE to be that person. But I can follow a recipe and I can substitute things for other ingredients I like to eat.  More than that, I love being able to provide for my family.  As much as I want to pretend I'm an "independent woman," inside I would love to be the stay at home, June Cleaver type of mom that has a hot meal on the table for her husband and kids every night.  So I'm going to take baby steps to get there.

Menu!  Recipes!  I'll be posting my menu again and I'll be featuring some of my favorite recipes here on the blog.  Share the wealth, right?

Monday--Ham and cheese sliders with poppy seed sauce (detailed recipe below) and asparagus
Tuesday--Relay meeting--no cooking from this mama!
Wednesday--Church dinner (we went to church to celebrate Brooklyn's fantastic news from surgery!)
Thursday --Stop and go sweet chili (posted on my blog a couple of months ago)
Friday--Garlic bread pizza 
Saturday (tonight)--Leftovers
Sunday--My speciality!  Chicken Stir Fry
Monday--Taco night with Spanish rice
Tuesday--Relay meeting (again!)
Wednesday--Hamburgers, tater tots and corn
Thursday--Tortellini with Alfredo sauce (Marty LOVES this stuff...he'd probably eat it once a week if I made it)
Friday--Homemade ham and pineapple pizza
Saturday--Leftovers

As you can see, I'm starting off slow.  A lot of the meals I have planned are pretty easy, slap 'em together and put 'em on the table kind of dinners.  I hope to get in the hang of cooking dinner again and then start busting out the hard stuff again.  They say it takes 30 days to make something into a habit.  All I have to do is make it a month!!

To make it a little easier, I picked up a "Mom's Journal" when I was in Walgreens the other day.  It was on the clearance section for like $1.50 or something like that.  It's kind of like a monthly planner, but instead of slots to fill in appointments and stuff, it has spots for your weekly meal plan and the grocery list to go with it.  Voila!  I'm a planner, a writer, so this seemed like the perfect solution to me.  Problem?  It's totally "mommy-ish":

Lame, right?  And it comes with stickers.  Gah.  I'm currently trying to think of ways to make it stylish and not so "HEY EVERYONE! LOOK AT ME!  I'M A MOM!!"   You know?

Back to the food.  On today's post, I'll be featuring the recipe for ham and cheese sliders with a poppy seed sauce (modified from this recipe).  Holy geez, these things are good.  Make them....you won't regret it.  And since Easter's coming up, you guys are going to need a lot of uses for that leftover ham.  :)

Ingredients:
Package of 12 original Hawaiian Rolls
Thinly sliced honey ham (or whatever ham you prefer)
Swiss cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise

Poppy seed sauce:
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 1/2 tbsp yellow mustard (may do less if you don't like the taste of mustard)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1.  Cut each Hawaiian roll in half.  Spread mayonnaise over each side of the roll. 

2. Put honey ham on each bottom roll.  I put a piece and a half of ham on each of my sandwiches.  You can add more or less, depending on your love of deli meat.  I won't judge :)

3. Put Swiss cheese on top of ham.  I bought the Walmart brand Swiss cheese slices...and those suckers are ha-uge.  So I folded them in half and put a half a slice of cheese on each sandwich.  Again, based on your love of cheese, you may wanna do more or less.

4.  Close each roll and put in a baking dish.  Place them close together.  I use a small baking dish that they can all fit into snugly.

5.  In a separate bowl, whisk together ingredients for the poppy seed sauce.  Pour evenly over the tops of the rolls.  I use every last drop of the stuff because I know how fantastic it is.  That's your call.  Drown 'em or just brush the tops of them with the sauce. 

6.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Take them out and devour.

I can honestly say that these sandwiches haven't passed "the husband test" yet because he hasn't been hungry both times I've made them (is that a man thing?  I'm ALWAYS hungry).  Which is completely fine with me because I want to hoard them all to myself.  Two of these sandwiches fills me up, so there's PLENTY of leftovers.  I've eaten them every day since I made them Monday night.  I love them. 

Thursday, I made my "stop and go sweet chili."  Marty said it was better than the first time I made it and...Avery ate it!  My little girl went from eating everything in sight all day long to picking at her food and barely eating anything for dinner.  All in all, I'd say it was a dinner win for this Super Messy mom. 

Happy cooking (and eating) y'all!